Happy Birthday Garrett!

We are a family of four!!

Garrett joined our family a little over 2 weeks ago. He was born 2 weeks early on November 19th. I want to write out his birth story before I forget some of the details. May be boring for you!

On Friday, November 19th, I woke up at 12:45 am having contractions. Curtis was still awake next to me watching TV. I had only been asleep for about an hour. When I first awoke, my contractions were coming very fast, about 2 minutes apart. I kept laying there hoping they would stop, but they did not. I finally got up and called the doctor and started packing up. After about an hour, they had slowed down to about 6-7 mins, but were still regular. I kept laying back down in hopes that they would stop, but we finally decided it was time to go to the hospital. I had just finished packing the hospital bag that day. We loaded Hayden in the car and my stepdad met us in front of the hospital to take Hayden back to their house. We arrived at the hospital sometime around 3:15 am.

After spending about 2 hours in triage, it was determined that I was indeed in labor (thankfully, because I was in entirely too much pain to be sent home!) I was 2 cm when I arrived, and the nurse said 4 cm when I was admitted. (Later, the doctor came to break my water, and he said I was only about 2 cm, so somebody was wrong! But it was too late!) I was admitted around 5:30 am, and I got my epidural around 8. The epi only numbed one half of my body, so I was in agony for quite some time. They finally came to give me a boost and that was much better. My legs were like tree trunks, I couldn't even move them.

The nurse checked me at 11:55 and I was 8 cm. The next 10 minutes was INTENSE. I told the nurse that I was feeling a ton of pressure, so she checked me again (12:05 PM) and I was 10 cm. By 12:15 I was pushing, and Garrett was born at 12:32!

He weighed in at 7 lbs 5 oz and was 19.5 inches long! And perfectly healthy! We were overjoyed!!

When Hayden came in to meet his baby brother for the first time, it was the sweetest moment of my life! He was so ecstatic. He jumped up into the bed with me and just gazed at Garrett. He kept saying "It's Garrett... he's so cute... I love him." He wanted to hold him right away. It was truly an amazing moment!

Our Family of four - so blessed!!